Giving yourself an unfair advantage

Tossing some ideas around this week with fellow sales executives it amazed me how little people do to ensure they get the business in this world. You pitched, you promoted, you got them to agree they need a solution, and now they have to tender this out. We all know that clients shop around, or in the case of Government sales "perform due diligence" . How then to do we ensure that the competition doesn't get the business after you've done all the work?
Here's a few ideas... a) Own the statement of work. If you and the client have written the statement of work you have the best opportunity to ensure that a requirement, or lack of a requirement is featured prominently to make it a stumbling block for the competion. For example - CRM database must have been load tested with IT approval on existing infrastructure. Imagine the competition trying to get that done? b) Gain executive sponsorship of your project - by forcing your contacts to seek approval from senior executives you are alerting senior people to your product, and forcing them to make a mental decision prior to it being released for bid. You may get to know these senior people in the process. c) Help get your contact person promoted - This may seem like a gamble but if you help draft a success document with them to be released post project announcing its success, you will ensure your contact is seen in a positive light, and helps the decision maker envision the benefits prior to project completion. d) Call in a favor from a complementary vendor - there's nothing like asking the advice of people that have gone before you, imagine they tell you that their project was stalled on an unforeseen issue? Plan to avoid it and head it off. You'll likely need to return the favor at another account but other vendors can find out what the client really feels about you, and that can be golden.